Freemasonry - History and Ritual

I Did Have A Better Resource For This But I Cant Find It?
So I Guess This Will Have To Do...

"When the authentic school [in the 18th C] came to examine
the English records they could find no evidence at all of
the existence of operative lodges. In medieval times the
operatives' lodge had simple been a hut or lean-to on the
site in which they stored their tools and took their
refreshment and ease. By the 1600s the guild system, with
the exception of the London Livery companies, was virtually
moribund. Not was there any evidence of an English Mason
word or of the English operatives having had secret modes
of recognition.... Accepted masonry simply seems to have
appeared in England as a new organization without any prior
connections with the operative craft."

Resource: History And Ritual

Probably the best historical resources are Henry Coil, Robert Gould, the various publications of Quatuor Coronati Masonic Research Lodge of London, Philalethes Society, and the Scottish Rite Research Society (USA).
There is a general consensus among historical scholars, both Masons and non-Masons, that the modern fraternity evolved from operative Lodges. Minutes of meeting of some of these earlier Lodge meetings have been published in the past in Ars Quatuor Coronati, and the operative guild sems to have been very active in medieval England and Scotland.
A brief statement on the historicity of the operative Lodges can be viewed here: www.nullens.org...
This page questions some popular theories about the operative Lodges but does not question their existence, giving as examples the Schaw Statutes, ratified by James VI of Scotland, who became James I of England (although, contrary to what it is written in "The Hiram Key", there is no evidence that James was ever a Mason. Masonic Lodges use the King James Version of the Bible because it was a readily accessible English translation, and not because James was a member of the Fraternity). Perhaps the most important Masonic organization of the operative period was the Masons' Company of London, who eventually admitted Elias Ashmole, along with several other non-operatives.

Fiat Lvx.

[Edited on 17-5-2004 by Masonic Light]

Thanks For That I Could Never Find Any Historical Information I Did At one Point But I Forgot The Site!

here is a site for you with some quotes from Alber Pike himself.Also, pay close attention to part II:www.freemasonrywatch.org...

Thanks For The Link, I Will Have A Look At It Now....

Originally posted by The Black Death
Thanks For The Link, I Will Have A Look At It Now....

Just a note... the site you were given in an anti-Masonic site, full of fraudulent material, including the infamous Pike "Luciferian Doctrine" quote from the Taxil hoax.

A better site to look at might be this one.

Originally posted by The Black Death
Thanks For The Link, I Will Have A Look At It Now....

I�m assuming that it is unnecessary to debunk the Freemasonry Watch website in this place, as anyone even remotely familiar with philosophy and history can apprehend how ludicrous their claims are, without any help from me. But since the link was posted, I can point out a few of the literally hundreds of falsehoods posted on its very first page.
Firstly, the claim that Mazzini was a member of the mafia is absurd, as anyone familiar with continental history already knows. Mazzini was an early Italian patriot and Republican, who called for the destruction of the church-state union, and a unified Italy. The Mafia began with the infamous Medici family, long before Mazzini was born, and the Mafia requires its initiates to be Roman Catholic, a faith Mazzini renounced in his teens.
Mazzini formed Young Italy, a revolutionary movement. Although the movement was never capable of completing the revolution, one of Mazzini�s most supportive followers (Giussepe Garibaldi, also a Brother Mason) did so after Mazzini�s death.
It is equally ridiculous to call the Black Hand Movement (whose actions instigated World War I) a Masonic organization. Gavrillo Princep, the assasin of the Archduke of the Hapsburgs, was only 19....too young to have joined the fraternity at that time, even if it had existed in Serbia (which it didn�t). Suffice it say that none of the Black Hand Members were Masons, much less that it was a Masonic organization (it was actually a Serbian nationalist political party).
Timothy MacVeigh was of course not a Mason. By clicking on the link from Freemasonry Watch�s first page, we are directed to a conversation posted on the newsgroup alt.freemasonry, between several Masons and a person claiming to be the grand master of the national grand lodge (an organization which does not exist). This person claims that MacVeigh was a Mason, and a member of his organization. But if we check the archives of alt.freemasonry, we see the webmaster of Freemasonry Watch masquerading as fictional �Masons�, making absurd statements, and then mirroring them on her website. I have no doubt that this entire scenario was concocted by this person.
The quote by JFK concerning secrecy is accurate, but way out of context. He was responding to criticism of a Catholic being president, and the connection of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits, who opposed separation of church and state, and operated secretly in political circles) with the Vatican. Kennedy�s comments concerned the Jesuits, not fraternal organizations.
The lies found on the site concerning Mozart, Weishaupt, P2, etc, are too well known to deserve wasting time on it here, or to give serious consideration thereto. For more info on the Freemasonry Watch website�s cycle of deception, see masonicinfo.com...

Fiat Lvx.

reply to post by Masonic Light


Total nonsense.

Please see: grandlodge.blogspot.com...